Tamron SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2
Andy Westlake finds out whether Tamron’s latest fast, stabilised telezoom is a decent alternative to its big-name counterparts
Does this telezoom rate as a decent alternative to others on the market?
Fast telephoto zooms are often seen as key workhorse lenses for serious photographers. With premium optics, they offer top-notch image quality, along with plenty of scope for shooting in low light or using shallow depth of field. But typically weighing in at 1.5kg, they require some commitment to carry around, and they’re a major investment, too – Canon and Nikon’s versions cost £2,000 and £2,650 respectively.
Naturally, third-party lens manufacturers have long sought to offer cheaper alternatives, but they’ve usually sacrificed features to achieve this goal. However, with its latest model, the SP 70-200mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2, Tamron is pitching a product that on paper stands up very well against the big two. It includes an ultrasonic motor for fast and silent autofocus, optical image stabilisation, and weather-resistant construction; the G2 tag denotes that it’s an improved second- generation version of a 2012 design. Crucially, its £1,350 price represents a considerable saving compared to Canon and Nikon’s lenses.
Features
A quick glance at the lens’s specification sheet reveals that Tamron hasn’t skimped on the design. The 23- element, 17- group optical formula includes one element crafted from extra-low- dispersion (XLD) glass, and five from low- dispersion (LD) glass, with the aim of minimising chromatic aberration. Tamron’s eBAND coating is in place to minimise flare and ghosting, while a fluorine coating on the front element makes it easy to keep clean.
Right at the front of the lens are a 77mm filter thread and the mount for the deep, petal-type hood. This clicks firmly into position, but has no locking button to hold it in place. It reverses snugly over the barrel for transport, but in this position it blocks the zoom ring entirely, which hinders getting quick grab shots.
Build and handling
With a solid-feeling metal barrel, there’s little to fault here in terms of construction. Tamron describes the lens as ‘moisture-
proof and dust- resistant’, with a series of internal seals and a rubber O-ring around the mount. I used it in rainy conditions with no trouble at all.
Towards the front of the barrel is the zoom ring, which has a ridged rubber grip. It rotates noticeably less smoothly than those on the Canon and Nikon equivalents, which means it’s not quite so easy to make fine adjustments to your compositions. Behind it is a narrower and more finely ridged focusing ring, with a small window on the top of the barrel indicating the current focus distance. Both zoom and focus are internal, so the lens’s balance in the camera doesn’t change while you’re shooting.
On the side of the barrel, you’ll find four switches to control the autofocus and stabilisation systems. Along with the usual AF/ MF control, there’s a focus limiter that restricts the closest focus distance to 3m – useful for reducing hunting when shooting distant subjects. Another switch turns stabilisation on or off, while the fourth allows you to choose between the three VC modes. They’re large and easy to operate, but are not readily distinguishable by touch alone when you’re looking through the camera’s viewfinder.
The supplied tripod mount ring has the standard 1/4in socket, but is also equipped with a dovetail base that fits directly onto Arca-Swiss-style quick-release clamps. Its low-profile design means it doesn’t occupy excessive space in a bag, and it can also be removed entirely if necessary. As usual, the lens rotates within the ring for setting the camera to to portrait format, but it doesn’t click into place at the 90- degree positions; instead you have to visually align small white dots.
Autofocus
Tamron has incorporated its Ultrasonic Silent Drive (USD) system for autofocus, which is very effective indeed. It’s quiet, fast, and decisive, and I found focus accuracy was difficult to fault, even when using off- centre focus points. When testing its continuous autofocus ability on the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, I got the impression that it was capable of doing practically whatever the camera asked of it. It kept fast-moving subjects impressively sharp once it had initially acquired focus, and I think most users would be quite happy with its capabilities. The lens also works well with Canon’s Dual Pixel AF for live view and movie shooting, being capable of smooth, controlled focus pulls from one subject to another with little motor noise.
Manual focus is mechanically coupled, and while the focus ring may be less silky compared to more expensive lenses, I had no difficulty getting accurate focus. Full-time manual focus is available, meaning you don’t have to switch to MF mode if you need to temporarily override the autofocus. The lens focuses as close as 0.95m, which is pretty much best in class. However, its specified maximum magnification of 0.16x is actually a little lower than Canon and Nikon’s offerings due to focus breathing effects – in other words, the angle of view getting wider as the lens is focused closer.
Image stabilisation
Tamron’s vibration compensation (VC) system promises to give sharp shots at shutter speeds up to five stops slower than would otherwise be useable, but only when set to VC mode 3, in which the viewfinder image isn’t stabilised. This
is in contrast to mode 1, which stabilises the viewfinder, allowing more precise composition, and mode 2 that’s designed for panning.
Tamron has historically been good at image stabilisation and this lens follows suit, with the viewfinder locking to an uncannily stable view when the shutter button is half-pressed. I found that with VC mode 1, I could reliably get sharp shots hand-held at around 1/30sec at the 200mm end, or 1/8sec at 70mm, which counts as around 4 stops of stabilisation. Switching to mode 3 gave a chance of getting sharp shots at even slower shutter speeds, down to 1/8sec at 300mm and 1/4sec at 70mm. But most of the time I’d stick to mode 1 for its clear operational advantages.
Image quality
To compete with its Canon and Nikon equivalents, a lens like this needs to deliver exceptional image quality, and for the most part that’s exactly what it does. The lens is impressively sharp, with the only slight weakness of our review sample being when shot wide open at 70mm. Distortion is so low as to be practically irrelevant, and while a little colour fringing can be seen around highcontrast edges towards the frame due to lateral chromatic aberration, it’s only visible when viewing images at the pixel level onscreen, and can be eliminated by a simple one- click correction in raw processing. Nikon DSLRs will automatically correct this kind of chromatic aberration in their JPEG output, too.
Out- of-focus backgrounds are generally rendered with a pleasing blur, and while the blur discs from point highlights can acquire a bright- edged character when the lens is focused close, it’s not excessively displeasing. The lens’s flare resistance is very impressive indeed, even when pointed directly into the sun. In short, from the hundreds of real-world images I shot while testing the lens on the 30MP Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, I didn’t find any obvious problems that would prevent me from recommending the lens.